Cream shortening and the sugar. Beat in the egg, mixing thoroughly. Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Add alternately with the milk. Stir in the raisins. Fill greased pans 2/3 full. Sprinkle with brown sugar and chopped nut meats. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Yield 12-16 muffins. Batter may be kept in a covered bowl in refrigerator for several days.

I suspect that Grandma got this recipe from the newspaper or a friend. I don’t really remember my grandmother making muffins when I was little. And as I think about it, this was the late 60s – people baked muffins of course, but it was before super-sized muffins of every conceivable flavor were so readily available. Maybe that’s why I was impressed by them. That – and because she seemed so pleased with her new recipe.

The ladies of the Friendship Circle of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Clovis, N. M. put it together in 1973. We moved to Clovis two weeks after I graduated from high school in 1971.

Mom contributed several of her “go to” recipes for the cookbook. I’ll be posting those recipes here for the next few weeks.

Usually I try to prepare the recipe I’m posting and take a picture or two, but today I can be lazy because I have some pictures I took back in 1999 when I thought about making a family cookbook.

I could get in serious trouble for including this picture of my daughter making meatloaf back in ’99, but since my kids never read my blog, maybe I’m safe.

Shhh! Don’t tell!

When mom served her meatloaf, the menu almost always included mashed potatoes and green peas, so that’s how I always serve it too.

Not long after my husband and I married, one of his high school buddies came for dinner. After dinner he told me that he really wasn’t a fan of meatloaf, but that this was good.

I think he meant it…. I should ask him.

If you make the recipe, be aware that the tomato sauce is mixed in a small bowl, then you go and get another bowl to crack that egg into. Also, I started putting about half the sauce into the meatloaf and the rest on top.